The Walking Dead season 8 photos tease Carl Grimes’s demise

Warning: The following article contains spoilers from The Walking Dead’s eighth season.

The demise of Carl Grimes in the second-half of The Walking Dead‘s eighth season is going to be agonising for viewers.

Last we saw the little ass-kicker (Chandler Riggs), he’d come clean about concealing a gruesome zombie-bite that meant certain death. Below, you can see the aftermath of his revelation:

In these first-look photos above (courtesy of Entertainment Weekly), things go from bad to worse when Carl rapidly deteriorates after being saved from a burned-out Alexandria home by his dad Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira).

Earlier this week, Chandler Riggs promised that Carl’s death will have huge implications for both Alexandria’s war with Negan and the broader series as a whole.

“He’s definitely leaving behind a really long-lasting legacy,” Riggs told Entertainment Weekly. “[That] was the coolest part about playing those final moments — knowing that Carl was going to have such a lasting impact on the story.”

Andrew Lincoln also offered his thoughts on the impact that the loss of his son will have on Rick as he tries to continue leading Alexandria, the Hilltop and the Kingdom in their battle with the Saviours.

“The back half [of the season] is him trying to live through the unbelievable pain, in the middle of a war, and trying to reconcile this loss with what he’s fighting for,” Lincoln explained. “This is his worst nightmare being realised.”

Rick’s worst nightmare begins to play out when The Walking Dead returns on Sunday, February 25 in the US on AMC and on Monday, February 26 on FOX UK.